Updated: Second Round of Workshops to Address Neighborhood Parking

The City Department of Transportation (DOT) announced the second round of public workshops in neighborhoods across the city to address community concerns about the possible impact of congestion pricing on neighborhood parking. Following an initial round of workshops held citywide in November, the second round of workshops this month and in February will be the basis for DOT to potentially develop plans to address any "park and ride" activity if such impacts result from congestion pricing in areas near subway stations and transit hubs outside the charging zone.

The study areas, which display a range of parking-related conditions, were selected based on their representative characteristics and their ability to inform parking strategies that can be applied citywide.

"The first round of workshops collected invaluable feedback across a spectrum of parking concerns,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, DOT commissioner. "Having studied these areas, we are now ready to come back out to the community and talk about what citywide parking strategies might really look like."

Undertaken with the city Economic Development Corp. (EDC), the PlaNYC Parking Strategies Study consists of workshops in five new study neighborhoods, held in November, and in two other neighborhoods-the Yankee Stadium area of the Bronx and in the Brooklyn Heights/Boerum Hill/Fort Greene sections of Brooklyn-where parking studies were already initiated. The new study will look at parking management strategies that can best meet the diverse parking needs of residents, businesses, shops, and religious and non-profit organizations.

The first round of workshops, held in November 2007 in the five new study neighborhoods, looked at parking conditions and needs, and began a dialogue on potential parking management strategies. The second set of workshops, to be held in this month and in February in all seven areas, will discuss possible parking management strategies such as instituting residential parking permit programs, expanding the use of Muni-Meters, making changes to on-street parking fees, and using technology to track parking usage in the study neighborhoods and other border-zone neighborhoods.

The neighborhoods scheduled for second-round workshops are: the Upper East Side, Manhattan; the Atlantic/4th/Flatbush Avenues Area, Brooklyn; Central Harlem, Manhattan; Forest Hills, Queens; and Long Island City, Queens; the Yankee Stadium area of the Bronx; and the Brooklyn Heights/Boerum Hill/Fort Greene sections of Brooklyn.